I have just been told that there has been a terrible
accident in this country. A train has fallen into the river and at least twenty
people have been killed. This is going to be a matter for discussion in the
French Parliament today, and the Director of the State Railway will be called
upon to speak. He will be cross-examined as to the condition of the railroad
and as to what caused the accident, and there will be a heated argument. I am
filled with wonder and surprise to notice what interest and excitement has been
aroused throughout the whole country on account of the death of twenty people,
while they remain cold and indifferent to the fact that thousands of Italians,
Turks, and Arabs are killed in Tripoli! The horror of this wholesale slaughter
has not disturbed the Government at all! Yet these unfortunate people are human
beings too.
Why is there so much interest and eager sympathy shown
towards these twenty individuals, while for five thousand persons there is
none? They are all men, they all belong to the family of mankind, but they are
of other lands and races. It is no concern of the disinterested countries if
these men are cut to pieces, this wholesale slaughter does not affect them! How
unjust, how cruel is this, how utterly devoid of any good and true feeling! The
people of these other lands have children and wives, mothers, daughters, and
little sons! In these countries today there is hardly a house free from the
sound of bitter weeping, scarcely can one find a home untouched by the cruel
hand of war.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk; ‘Paris Talks: Addresses given by 'Abdu'l-Bahá
in Paris in 1911-1912’)
